New on-chain data suggests that the US government hacked wallets for its $14 billion Bitcoin seizure. Although it indicted major criminals, the BTC in question had been taken from them five years ago.
Sleuths identified a few inconsistencies in the Treasury’s official narrative. If this is true, then law enforcement may begin aggressive seizures to fill a Bitcoin Reserve.
Did the US Hack Bitcoin Wallets?
Earlier this morning, the US government’s $14 billion Bitcoin seizure attracted a lot of excitement in the crypto community. However, crypto sleuths have examined the on-chain data, discovering a few potential inconsistencies with the official story.
This led some to claim that the US actually hacked these wallets, which could radically change the story.
First of all, although the Cambodian crime ring was a pig butchering operation, it also ran other criminal and legitimate enterprises.
One of these was a Bitcoin mining pool, which was hacked in 2020. Over the last five years, these assets sat idle in wallets, and a report claimed that they had vulnerable private keys:
In other words, crypto sleuth ZachXBT made some revolutionary connections between these incidents. Today’s seizure might have had nothing to do with the Cambodian crime ring; instead, the US government may have hacked them from other hackers.
Aggressively Building a Reserve
If this is true, it might have huge implications for the US Strategic Crypto Reserve. The government holds billions in BTC, but it must reimburse most of them to their initial owners.
If, however, these funds were hacked from other indicted criminals, the US government might just keep them.
Between this unprecedented behavior and the inconsistencies in the official story, the US government might be getting more aggressive here. If buying Bitcoin to fill the Reserve becomes too expensive, the US could simply pursue hacks like this.
Did the US Hack These Bitcoins? Source: ZachXBT
Until today, US law enforcement has taken a methodical approach to all Bitcoin seizures. It took them, reimbursed them to victims if applicable, and sold them in open auction if not.
However, if the US has a new directive to acquire Bitcoin through methods like hacking, it could upend all that precedent.
In other words, Trump’s administration may be politicizing this ostensibly neutral process. Moving forward, law enforcement might take a proactive role in filling Uncle Sam’s bags.
